take your answer off the air...

Talker's MagazineThe quirky talk radio trade mag. Check the Talk Radio Research Project- it's not very scientific, but places on the top 15 talkers list (scroll down to Talk Radio Audiences By Size)) are as hotly contested as Emmys (and mean just about as much).

The AdvocateNo, not THAT Advocate... it's the Northwest Progressive Institute's Official Blog.

Media MattersDocumentation of right-wing media in video, audio and text.

Orcinushome of David Neiwert, freelance investigative journalist and author who writes extensively about far-right hate groups

Hominid Views"People, politics, science, and whatnot"
Darryl is a statistician who fights imperialism with empiricism, gives good links and wry commentary.

Jesus' General An 11 on the Manly Scale of Absolute Gender, a 12 on the Heavenly Scale of the 10 Commandments and a 6 on the earthly scale of the Immaculately Groomed.

Irrational Public Radio "informs, challenges, soothes and/or berates, and does so with a pleasing vocal cadence and unmatched enunciation. When you listen to IPR, integrity washes over you like lava, with the pleasing familiarity of a medium-roast coffee and a sensible muffin."

The Moderate VoiceThe voice of reason in the age of Obama, and the politics of the far-middle.

News Hounds Dogged dogging of Fox News by a team who seems to watch every minute of the cable channel so you don't have to.

HistoryLinkFun to read and free encyclopedia of Washington State history. Founded by the late Walt Crowley, it's an indispensable tool and entertainment source for history wonks and surfers alike.

right-wing blogs we like

The Reagan WingHearin lies the real heart of Washington State Republicans. Doug Parris runs this red-meat social conservative group site which bars no holds when it comes to saying who they are and who they're not; what they believe and what they don't; who their friends are and where the rest of the Republicans can go. Well-written, and flaming.

March 23, 2013

That is what the Tea Party is claiming in light of the Benghazi accusations going nowhere in an article from the Daily Beast:

“Particularly after the election, Fox keeps turning to the left,” said
Stan Hjerlied, 75, of Fort Collins, Colo., and a participant in the
boycott. He pointed to an interview Fox News CEO Roger Ailes gave after the election
in which he said that the Republican Party and Fox News need to
modernize, especially around immigration. “So we are really losing our
only conservative network.”

Evidently, there is a boycott of FOX News but no one noticed, it supposedly ends Sunday. Kathy Amidon, leader of the boycott based in Nashville (where else?) said a previous boycott resulted in a 20% loss in viewers. The Daily Beast has found no data to support her claims. Amidon has directed the rest of the press to her website but has declined a formal interview.

If all else fails, there is also the announcement made at the not-so-big-tent CPAC conference last week in which a new conservative news channel will be launched soon.

The One America News Network according to the Daily Beast "is a production of Herring Broadcasting, the San
Diego-based company behind Wealth TV, a channel dedicated to appealing
to and documenting the lifestyles of the rich and famous."

"With only one outlet, if you happen to be an independent or a
libertarian, or you are on the outside, you only have one platform right
now, which is Fox,” he said. “There just isn’t enough time in the day
to have those voices heard. I see us as opening up another front,
another platform.”

What Herring and others are saying is, FOX is not ugly enough even with Ted Nugent's soiled britches stinking up the studios along with Bill O'Reilly's bile infested rants.

January 31, 2013

Lee Rodgers, who made a brief appearance on the Seattle airwaves back in 1994, then left after he stunk up the ratings at KIRO following the retirement of Jim French has died after a 13 hour by-pass surgery. His last known radio spot was on San Francisco's KSFO and prior to KIRO, several years at KGO 810. Rodger's was let go in 2010, after 14 years at then Citadel's KSFO, opposite co-host Melanie Morgan who wrote a tribute today . We profiled him earlier when he was let go at KSFO.

January 17, 2013

In the aftermath of the recent mass shootings around the country, the National Rifle Assn (NRA) has come out with yet another ad aimed this time at the President's school age daughters. The ad, later pulled after criticism from conservatives such as Joe Scarborough purported to connect the Presidents use of Secret Service protection for his children at school as hypocritical to the rest of Americans who supposedly face the same type of threat.

Scarborough related on his Morning Joe show via Media Matters: Scarborough, who as a Congressman was a strong supporter of the NRA,
responded to the ad, asking "what's wrong with these people?" He
continued, pointing out that once Obama decided to run for president,
his children "have targets on their backs." Scarborough also said that
the NRA is now a "fringe organization with millions of mainstream
members." He concluded by saying the ad was "frightening and over the
line."

The NRA wasn't the only dog whistle being blown, El Rushbo was also in on the act:

Comparing the executive order signing yesterday with children standing around the President, Limbaugh bellowed: "The children's as human shield show"
Others collaborating with Rush on twitter includes FOX radio's Todd Starnes who yapped:

Another spare parts talker, FOX' Tammy Bruce tweeted "Really? How about Obama using dead children as pawns?"

Republicans are threatening to impeach Obama
over executive action on gun control, but many presidents have issued
executive orders on gun control, including George H. W. Bush and Bill
Clinton.

Executive orders concerning a ban on assault weapons is nothing new. In 1989 after a mass schoolyard shooting in Stockton Calif, then President George HW Bush signed an executive order banning the importation of certain semi-automatic . This was based on the 1968 gun control act.

1952 Supreme Court ruled Executive Orders cannot be used to make new laws. However, Executive orders can be used to manage the enforcement of an existing law such as the Gun Control act of 1968. Both the 1989 signing and President Clinton's signing in 1998 banning 50 semiautomatic weapons that were modified due to "sporting purposes" exemptions.

The President could also use another existing law to sign additional orders. The National Firearms Act (NFA)
of 1934,(after the St Valentines Day Massacre,FDR signed) which levied a tax on the transfer of firearms. The President
could use an executive order to institute a database and background
checks centered on the sale of firearms; in other words, managing an
existing law.

Boortz had planned the Happy Ending prior to his last air date of Jan 18th. From Radio Online and his Facebook page he gushes:

"Thanks to the 4,650 people who came to my
Happy Ending party at the Fox Theater in Atlanta last night," Boortz
posted on his Facebook page. "You're my extended family -- LOVE YOU. And
thanks to my Happy Ending guests! Banks & Shane, our emcee Chuck
Dowdle, Sean Hannity, Jeff Foxworthy, Rush (no last name needed), a nice
greeting from Larry the Cable Guy, Jamie Dupree, Herman Cain, Clark
Howard, Erick Erickson, Monica Pearson, the two women I love the most to
whom I'm not related, Belinda and Cristina, and my family, THE QUEEN,
of course, and my daughter, Laura and her husband. The grandbaby stayed
home taking care of a babysitter. Oh ... and Hannity, The Queen and I
closed down a particular bar at 2:30 last night. That was the
after-party. Love you all -- mean it -- and Royal was deeply missed."'

Boortz is known for creating the kind of on-air controversy his contemporaries live for.

The day after the Nov election, Boortz compared the President to Ted Bundy and Hitler. We've noticed a lot of talk show hosts lately with a fascination with a black Hitler.

Even Hogans Heroes had to be careful when using Ivan Dixon to impersonate a Nazi and only at night.

Boortz also claimed President Obama "is a bigger disaster to this country than 9-11." That comment drew harsh criticism from 9-11 victims' families. According to Talkers Magazine, Boortz holds a national audience of about 6 million weekly listeners, 200 stations.

We find it hard to believe since only so many hosts can claim 6 million listeners and also since his show is not heard around here.

He was ranked by the magazine as the 13th most influential radio talk host in the nation this year.

January 08, 2013

We haven't seen anything like it, a former local teevee star still on the payroll after several attempts to make him into a radio star.

John Curley has been in a staging pattern at KIRO since he left KING 5 Evening Magazine some time ago. He was tried out in the 7-10 slot last year. Then this past Oct, he was tried out on mornings, doing news....

We've followed the on-air career of John Curley, it's clear we don't like him, bodily function,frat-boy radio doesn't seem to cut it here. He's also a republican in a Dori way but as one poster commented, people laugh with Dori while others laugh at Curley. His twitter page hasn't been updated since Aug.

We tried to make the photo smaller, but John's over-sized, Sammamish ego wouldn't call for it

Curley is an easy, go-to guy to shuffle around, he doesn't need the money, he has his own business on the side doing high-end 501-c3 auctions in which he takes a percentage. (when it doesn't conflict with the raydio, which is why he may have been moved to mornings) The suits in radio don't care about what happens after 6p which is why they probably pulled him after 3 months doing the morning commute. It is possible the on air presence was a launching pad for a larger venture into politics beyond his gig as a Sammamish City Council member.

We could put the blame on the choice of programmers at KIRO. Jason Antebi, (rhymes with Raid on Entebbe) Asst PD at KIRO-KTTH, also Jason Rantz on the raydio, whom we profiled earlier as a partisan, crybaby college radio shock-jock and contributor to such august publications as Reader's Digest and Human Events.

His college radio show frequently mocked Occidental's administration, student
government, as well as a wide-range of political and social causes. His
attorney described his show thus:

The school fired Antebi from the show, and he recruited Foundation
for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) who wrote a letter condemning
the college and pointed out that his speech was clearly protected under the First Amendment.

The school's attorney responded with a letter that, according to his
FIRE lawyer, "flatly distorted and misrepresented facts and implied,
without a shred of evidence, that Raid on Antebi had committed a variety of
serious offenses including vandalizing cars and making harassing phone
calls."

December 27, 2012

We are still blogging lite due to having yet to completely consume all the cookies and other goodies we baked. Here is a quote from former Bush aide, Mark McKinnon:

Former
Bush aide Mark McKinnon on the incredible shrinking Republican Party:
"Increasingly, it is becoming clear that the party is against everything
and for nothing.

"Nothing on taxes. Nothing on gun control.
Nothing on climate change. Nothing on gay marriage. Nothing on
immigration reform (or an incremental, piece-by-piece approach, which
will result in nothing). It's a very odd situation when the losing party
is the party refusing to negotiate. It may be how you disrupt, but it
is not how you govern, or how you ever hope to regain a majority.

"And so, we have a Republican Party today willing to eliminate any
prospect for a decent future for anyone, including itself, if it cannot
be a future that is 100 percent in accordance with its core beliefs and
principles. That's not governing. That's just lobbing hand grenades. If
you're only standing on principle to appear taller, then you appear
smaller. And the GOP is shrinking daily before our eyes."

"According to multiple Fox sources, Ailes has issued a new
directive to his staff: He wants the faces associated with the election
off the air — for now. For Karl Rove and Dick Morris — a pair of pundits
perhaps most closely aligned with Fox’s anti-Obama campaign — Ailes’s
orders mean new rules. Ailes’s deputy, Fox News programming chief Bill
Shine, has sent out orders mandating that producers must get permission
before booking Rove or Morris."

… thus finally answering the question: What does it take to embarrass Fox News?

"Former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) made a rare Senate appearance
this morning, sitting in a wheelchair just off the floor so that
members would have to see him as they entered the chamber. Why? Because
they were poised to vote on ratification of the U.N. Convention on the
Rights of People with Disabilities, and Dole hoped to send a message.

It didn't work. The Senate killed the treaty
this afternoon, with a final vote of 61 to 38, which seems like a
lopsided majority, but which fell short of the two-thirds necessary for
ratification. Eight Republicans broke ranks and joined Democrats in
support of the treaty, but the clear majority of the Senate GOP voted to
block it.

But most Senate Republicans saw it as a threat to American "sovereignty," even though the treaty wouldn't
have required the United States to change its laws. When the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee approved the treaty with bipartisan support
in July, Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.) explained the proposal simply
"raises the [international] standard to our level without requiring us
to go further."

In other words, we wouldn't actually have to do
anything except say we like the treaty -- and then wait for other
signatories around the world to catch up to the United States' Americans
with Disabilities Act.

The treaty was endorsed by Dole, John
McCain, and Dick Lugar, among other prominent Republican figures, but it
didn't matter. The GOP's right-wing base, led in part by Rick Santorum,
raised hysterical fears about the treaty, and most Senate Republicans
took their cues from the party's activists, not the party's elder
statesmen."

So, if you are a disabled person in a country where you still cant access certain places in your wheelchair, 38 Republican United States Senators want to wish you a very Merry Christmas.

The former presidential candidate pronounced
his “grave concerns” about the treaty, which forbids discrimination
against people with AIDS, who are blind, who use wheelchairs and the
like. “This is a direct assault on us,” he declared at a news
conference.

Lee, a tea party favorite, said he, too, has “grave
concerns” about the document’s threat to American sovereignty. “I will
do everything I can to block its ratification, and I have secured the
signatures of 36 Republican senators, all of whom have joined with me
saying that we will oppose any ratification of any treaty during this
lame-duck session.”

Lame or not, Santorum and Lee recognized that
it looks bad to be disadvantaging the disabled in their quest for fair
treatment. The former senator from Pennsylvania praised Lee for having
“the courage to stand up on an issue that doesn’t look to be
particularly popular to be opposed.”

Courageous? Or just
contentious? The treaty requires virtually nothing of the United States.
It essentially directs the other signatories to update their laws so
that they more closely match the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Even Lee thought it necessary to preface his opposition with the
qualifier that “our concerns with this convention have nothing to do
with any lack of concern for the rights of persons with disabilities.”

Their
concerns, rather, came from the dark world of U.N. conspiracy theories.
The opponents argue that the treaty, like most everything the United
Nations does, undermines American sovereignty — in this case via a plot
to keep Americans from home-schooling their children and making other
decisions about their well-being.

The treaty does no such thing;
if it had such sinister aims, it surely wouldn’t have the support of
disabilities and veterans groups, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce,
Republican senators such as John McCain (Ariz.) and John Barrasso
(Wyo.), and conservative legal minds such as Boyden Gray and Dick
Thornburgh.

But the opposition is significant, because it shows
the ravages of the Senate’s own disability: If members can’t even agree
to move forward on an innocuous treaty to protect the disabled, how are
they to agree on something as charged as the “fiscal cliff”? And
although the number of senators who actually oppose the treaty — such as
Lee, Pat Toomey (Pa.) and Jim DeMint (S.C.) — is probably quite small,
Lee’s boast of 36 signatures means he has persuaded enough of his
colleagues to block action, at least temporarily. (Treaties require a
two-thirds vote in the Senate to pass.)

Santorum made an emotional
appeal, even bringing his daughter Bella, who has a severe birth
defect, to the Senate hearing room for the event. “There’s no benefit to
the United States from passing it,” he said, as Bella wriggled in her
mother’s arms. “But what it does is open up a Pandora’s box for the most
vulnerable among us: children with disabilities.”

Yet the
opponents couldn’t agree on how this box would be opened. “Do I believe
that states will pass laws or have to pass laws in conformity with the
U.N. edict?” Santorum asked himself. “Do we have to amend IDEA?” the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
“I don’t have any fear anytime soon that IDEA will be amended. But I do
have concerns that people will go to courts and they will use this
standard in this convention.”

This was contradicted by the next
man at the microphone, home-schooling advocate Mike Farris, who pointed
out that the document has a provision stating that “you can’t go to
court automatically. You must have implementing legislation first” — the
very thing Santorum says he does not expect to happen.

Still,
their spurious theory of a U.N. takeover of parenting was enough to lead
Lee and Santorum to oppose a treaty that would extend American values
worldwide and guarantee disabled people equal treatment, and freedom
from torture and exploitation.

Santorum justified his opposition
by saying that other countries wouldn’t actually enforce the provisions.
“It does not provide any moral leadership,” he said.

But in this fight against rights for the disabled, Santorum doesn’t have a leg to stand on."

KVI am 570 KHz Visit the burnt-out husk of one of the seminal right-wing talkers in all the land. Here's where once trilled the reactionary tones of Rush Limbaugh, John Carlson, Kirby Wilbur, Mike Siegel, Peter Weissbach, Floyd Brown, Dinky Donkey, and Bryan Suits.
Now it's Top 40 hits from the '60's & '70's aimed at that diminishing crowd who still remembers them and can still hear.

KTTH am 770 KHzRight wing home of local, and a whole bunch of syndicated righties such as Glennn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Michael Medved, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Lars Larsony, and for an hour a day: live & local David Boze.